The use of e-mail transmitted over the Internet or through a local area network (LAN) is becoming ever increasingly popular. If a user's workplace is provided with a LAN-based e-mail system, it is possible to promptly notify a user sitting at his or her workstation of a new e-mail message. In many instances, however, a user may be away from the workstation and will not be promptly notified of an e-mail message. Similarly, when a user is home and not on-line, the user is not promptly provided with e-mail messages which frustrates the entire purpose of e-mail. In order for e-mail to become an effective communication tool, it is necessary to promptly notify a user upon the receipt of an e-mail message in his or her e-mail box, which typically requires a phone call, defeating the purpose of e-mail.
In order to address the e-mail notice problem, several Internet service providers (ISP) offer a service in which a customer who has a pager is automatically sent a page indicating "you have mail" upon the receipt of an e-mail message in the user's e-mail box. The message format is frequently limited, and few ISP's at the present time provide such a service.
Several pager companies, namely, Paging Network and M-Tel have introduced e-mail access for users having Motorola alphanumeric pagers. Rather than using proprietary software and a direct-dial modem for transmitting an alphanumeric message to the pager company, anyone having Internet access can simply create a short message and forward it to a unique address associated with the pager owner's name at the paging company Internet address, i.e. XXX@pageco.com. The problem associated with this service is that long messages exceeding the page length limit will be truncated. Furthermore, pages cannot include attachments, preventing someone from simply sending a message to both the pager and an e-mail box using the "to" and a "cc" line to address the recipient's e-mail box and pager simultaneously.
In short, there is a well recognized need for seamlessly integrating pagers and e-mail in order to promptly notify a user of an e-mail message which the pager and the Internet service provider industries are attempting to address. However, the present system has serious defects which limit the successful implementation of e-mail paging.